For Dr. King’s ‘Beloved Community’, please bring to the Church on MLK Day clothing donations of new hats, gloves, socks and underwear for the N.O.A.H. Program for the homeless.

50 Years Since Selma: The Struggle for Democracy, Peace and Social Justice Continues

On Jan. 19, 2015 we will hold the 12th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Rally & March beginning at Noon in the sanctuary of the Central United Methodist Church. This year’s theme is “From Selma to Detroit: The Struggle for Democracy, Peace and Social Justice Continues.”

We are recognizing the valiant contributions of the struggle for voting rights by Dr. King, the founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and others who paved the way for the advances gained during the 1960s and 1970s.

Nonetheless, today we are facing the most profound challenge to the status of civil rights, human rights and economic justice since the martyrdom of Dr. King in 1968.In the state of Michigan fundamental rights to a living wage, collective bargaining, municipal pensions and public services have been eroded.

The situation in Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island, New York illustrates the degree of racial unrest and social inequality in the U.S. People have responded in the tens of thousands through demonstrations and civil disobedience demanding justice for Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and all victims of police brutality.

Police misconduct and judicial impunity have been the social mechanisms used to transfer the largest sum of wealth in history from working people to the rich. Based upon the conditions we face and the need to build for the future, we have no other recourse except to follow the legacy of Dr. King in championing the plight of the poor and oppressed in their striving towards genuine equality and self-determination.

The program for this year will include tributes to the late Retired Judge Claudia Morcom, U.S. Congressman John Conyers, Jr., the late General Baker, there will be representatives speaking on behalf of organizations involved in the struggle for water rights, housing, anti-racism, labor, environmental security and other issues.

We are requesting your participation in this annual event. If you are interested in joining the planning committee contact us by phone , 313-405-2185 or email: mlkdetroit@ymail.com

The 11th Annual MLK Day march and rally commemorating Freedom Summer 1964 was a huge success with hundreds in attendance.

Greater Detroit’s annual celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is promoted through an Annual Rally & Freedom March for truth, freedom, justice, nonviolence and compassionate outreach for those in need. The MLK Day event seeks to keep alive Dr. King’s dream and devotion to realizing ‘The Beloved Community’ in a manner best defined by one of King’s foremost mentors, Mahatma Gandhi, by ‘being the change we wish to see” ~ The Detroit MLK Day Committee

Thank you so much to these sponsors for making MLK Day 2014 possible.

Avalon Bakery

Buck Dinner Committee

Central United Methodist Church

Detroit Wobbly Kitchen and Food Not Bombs

Green Party of Michigan

Matrix Theater Company

Michigan Coalition for uman Rights (MCHR)

Michigan Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI)

Moratorium NOW! Coalition

Mosaic Design Group

Olympia Entertainment

Tanya and Peter Stevenson

Swords Into Plowshares

UAW Local 140 – Civil & Human Rights Committee

Veterans for Peace, Chapter 74, MI

Vision Fair Foundation

Great thanks go out to these awesome endorsers!

Advocate for Informed Nonviolent Social Change (AINSC)

Autoworker Caravan

Citizens for Peace

Detroit Eviction Defense

Michigan Welfare Rights Organization

Thank you to all the poets that made 2014 MLK day cultural program so wonderful and speacial